Really enjoyed this Trey, good schlocky fun.  Congratulations on your first feature and the accolades that have followed!

Great work on this, guys! The inside scoop on the Asylum is priceless. I know you don't think so, but the effects shots were actually very impressive (altho I don't understand why Moby Dick didn't look anything like a sperm whale). It's silly not to allow time to edit the thing properly. I'd rather have weak effects and a decent structure (a la Hammer studios) than good-looking schlock. But a film with 4 parallel storylines in the third act smacks of Phantom Menace anyway, so the writer didn't do Trey any favors.

It's too bad the Asylum don't put a little more emphasis on quality, because audiences DO notice and the money WILL stop coming in. With just a pinch of care and all they talent at their disposal, they could produce something that actually hits with audiences and really does change the bottom line.

Film makers saw that with westerns, which were made by the wagon load in the 30s and 40s, and mostly stank. Then A-picture producers started making good ones, and the schlock was driven out (well, into sci fi, actually) in 50s.

I'm curious, just how much money do Asylum make off of their films? They must make enough to keep it going obviously (and buy them nice cars) but I just don't get it... who is spending money on these movies? They're bargain bin DVDs so they can't be making that much money off of DVD sales and there surely can't be that many people buying them?

What budget do Asylum films usually have?

Nice commentary. I was a bit surprised by how insistent the US Navy is on having their sailors working in near-dark conditions. There's one scene that takes place in an office during the daytime that's so underlit it must be some form of training.

Don't mean to put you on the spot there.

I've got to give it to them, they don't let a lack of money affect  their ambition. On the other hand, that's probably the greatest flaw of all their movies. Usually you don't try to make a monster movie about a giant whale smashing cruise liners, submarines and helicopters on a shoestring budget. Usually, you play to your weaknesses rather than try to compete with those who do have the money. It seems almost every one of Asylum's movies is a special effects extravanga wannabe and yet that's precisely the type of movie that needs a bigger budget.  They feature almost hundred CGI SFX shots, which are the most difficult to get right. The best effect of the whole movie was the sliced off limb at the beginning.